Ankur Bora
Mathematics, like painting or poetry, is hard creative work.
It takes great amount of time and laborious effort to produce a piece of art
and it takes slow, contemplative process to recognize a theory of mathematics.
Like art, Mathematics is understood by someone who knows the history and
philosophy of the subject, who is excited and curious about the recent
developments and who has a propensity to original thinking. Unfortunately, the teaching
of mathematics is reduced to mere data transmission. Mathematics is often
treated as joyless and redundant exercises, mathematics classes are often cluttered
with jargon and nomenclature. If teachers themselves are passive recipients of
information and not creators of new ideas, what hope is there for their
students? 
In early part of this decade , two young math enthusiasts were
taking a closer look at exactly what our Assamese students were up against—
what they were being exposed to in the name of mathematics, and how they were
being harmed in the process. “We have
realized that the scene in Assam is not very good and there are lot of things
that students do not know.” – It’s part of a fascinating, heartwarming
story of these young men. Rather than to live under the mercy of circumstances,
they learn how to create opportunity. Unlike others who find excuses to leave,
they began to focus on prospects, leading to the formation of ‘GonitSora’, the
first ever forum on Mathematics for the students of Assam.
Manjil Saikia is a young Math enthusiast
who had the distinction of winning national and international recognitions and
honors in the field of mathematics. Currently, a Research Fellow at the
University of Vienna, Austria Manjil is pursuing PhD in the specialized field
of combinatorics and number theory. Manjil was good at mathematics since his
early childhood and his parents had been supportive throughout in his school
days. The first bite of mathematical apple occurred when Manjil at around age
fourteen, had the good fortune of meeting Prof. Mangesh B. Rege of the North
Eastern Hill University, Shillong. The interaction gave him the first glimpse
of real mathematics, a heady realm of symbols, the mysterious integers, the deep
and revelatory patterns. Prof. Mangesh
also encouraged him to participate in Mathematical Olympiad, a competition that
tests the skill as well as patience of problem solving. Manjil topped the state
and regional Mathematical Olympiad, thereby also winning the prestigious Dr.
Subratanada Dowerah Memorial Gold Medal in the year 2007. Manjil has also been
inspired and encouraged by a number of individuals including Prof. Nayandeep
Deka Baruah of Tezpur University , Dr. Rupam Barman and Dr. Anupam Saikia of
IIT Guwahati, Prof. Sujatha Ramdorai of University
of British Columbia, Canada and Dr. Dilip Sharma, retired Head of Mathematics,
Cotton College. He fondly shares some of the anecdotes –“once I wanted to read few books of Dr.
Sharma but they were out of print. I made a phone call to him, not expecting
him to respond but I was surprised and to this day I remain indebted to him for
motivating and giving me many of his books and articles to read. I have met
very few men as kind as him.”
Pankaj hails from Lakhimpur where
he completed his graduate study at North Lakhimpur College. There is a small bookstore
at the center of the town, which he used to frequent during his childhood. “It
was browsing through those books in the shop that fueled my dreams of mathematics.”
– The bookstore contributed to his intellectual growth and he developed a
number ideas for students and youths. However his peers never understood the
significance of them. Like many other men who have conceived great ideas ahead of
time, Pankaj was laughed at. Even at Guwahati University, where he enrolled for
postgraduate, the academic environment was not productive at that time. Thus, he
left the course midway. It was time of great uncertainty though he never gave
up his dream; perhaps he was willing to endure in order to create something. Pankaj
eventually joined Tezpur University to complete MSc in Mathematics.
It was at the university, Manjil
and Pankaj, realized the importance of mathematics forum for Assamese students
and in the month of April 2011, they launched a multilingual web magazine called
Gonit Sora. Gonit Sora, meaning the gateway
to mathematics in Assamese, is a sincere effort to popularize mathematics and
to use lessons and resources to bring real-life math into the classroom. The website caters to the student community by
posting relevant articles in branches of mathematics like geometry, probability
and calculus, creating an online repository of mathematical articles and facts,
and organizing workshops and outreach activities for college and school
students. Gonit Sora is gaining popularity with amazing increase in the number
of questions received. The dedicated teams of editors and staff writers are
posting the answered queries in a regular basis.
I am an avid reader and regular
visitor to Gonit Sora website and this is where I come across a fascinating
story on John Nash. Dr. Surajit Borkotokey is a young Math enthusiast, who, had
the rare distinction of meeting the Nobel laureate at an International
conference at University of São Paulo, Brazil. This incredible meeting in form
of an article was first published in the website of Gonit Sora. I am immensely
proud of Surajit and I hope that such instructive, inspiring article will reach
lots of Assamese students and stimulate young minds.
Manjil has been communicating with me
regularly sharing his most rewarding experience, at the Abdus Salam
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. “At ICTP, I had the good fortune of meeting
and listening to Nobel Laureates and Fields Medalists and that had made a deep
mark on me and the way I do mathematics.” Manjil also shares the testimonials
of some of the young students and researchers whom he mentors. “I also try to help any student who writes to
me in whatever way possible. I must mention about two students in whom I take
special pride. One of them got admission at the Chennai Mathematical Institute,
a world class institute noted for its research in the field of algebraic
geometry, while the other, a young HSLC passed out, recently finished writing
his first research paper which is being accepted in a reputed journal.” Meanwhile, Pankaj has joined Gauhati University
to pursue PhD in mathematics with specialization in algebraic graph theory. He
also continues to contribute to Gonit Sora – “What I could not get access to in our childhood, I am trying to provide
to the new generation through Gonit Sora”
Thank you Ankur Da, for such a nice article about our efforts. Words such as these, encourage us more to contribute in whatever way we can. There is still a lot more we want to do, but due to limited resources and time, some activities are in a back-seat, but there is no excuse and we will strive forward for more. I am sure one day, the students in Assam will not feel in any way inferior to their counterparts in the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI would like to point out that I have not got any international recognition so far in mathematics, this might be misconstrued by some. But thank you, once again for taking the time out to write about us.
Thanks a lot Ankur da for highlighting the journey of these two young enthusiasts to the fulfillment of their dreams...I hope more people will be involved in their mission to make mathematics an enjoyable subject...
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